Ray William Johnson: True Story Podcast - Woody Harrelson's Dad Was a Hitman - The Charles V Harrelson Story

Episode Date: September 14, 2025

Charles V. Harrelson was an American contract killer and the father of actor Woody Harrelson. A career criminal with a long history of violence, Harrelson was convicted of multiple murders for hire, including the 1979 assassination of federal judge John H. Wood Jr.

Did you know that Woody Harrelson's dad was an assassin? Like, I'm serious. So we all know Woody Harrelson, famous actor, movie star, he was in Hunger Games, Zombie Land, Cheers, a bunch of stuff, you know Woody Harrelson, the guy's been famous forever. Well, his dad is this guy, Charles. And Charles is about 22 years old when this story starts, living in Texas, and bro is kind of a turd. He's addicted to gambling, and he works odd jobs. But that doesn't really work out, and so he doesn't really work out. And so he turns to a life of crime and he gets busted for armed robbery.

Here's his mugshot. And he ends up flipping on some people and he only gets sentenced to five years probation. Now Charles is actually married with three sons. And one of those sons is little Woody Harrelson. His name is actually Woodrow. Anyway, so Charles lives with his wife and his three sons. And in 1964, after many years of Charles's gambling and getting in trouble, his wife finally leaves him. She files for divorce.

She's sick of his shit. She moves to Ohio and she takes her three sons with her, including Woodrow. And so Charles, he doesn't raise little Woodrow. Woodrow grows up with his mom in Ohio. In fact, he doesn't have contact with his dad at all. Now, as far as Charles goes, for the rest of his 20s, he continues to be a turd. He keeps gambling a lot. He goes to California and commits some crimes.

And so he ends up spending some time in prison there before ending up back in Texas. and a few years go by, and it's now 1968. And Charles, he's around 30 years old at this point. And by now, he's in a ton of gambling debt. So, in order to make some money, he goes full-on TV villain, and he becomes a hitman. Like one day, a guy offers him $1,500 to unalive his business rival, and Charles is like, all right, I'll do it.

And so he recruits his girlfriend to help him out, And she somehow lures the target to a local bar in town and Charles is there waiting for him. And when Charles sees them, boom, he pulls a gun on the guy. Then he forces him into the back of his car. Then Charles tells the girlfriend to drive them all to a remote location. Once they're there, Charles lets him out of the back and blam, he shoots him. Then he strangles him to make sure the job is done. Then he flees.

Now at this point, he's gotten away with this murder. he could lay low and probably be fine, but that's just not what Charles does. He's got gambling debt to pay off. So instead, he agrees to do another hit job. Six months later, someone offers him one. They offer him $2,000 to assassinate a guy, and Charles accepts this job. And he goes and he finds this new target, and blam, he unalives him the same way he did the first guy, and he disposes up the body, and he flees.

But this time he ends up getting caught and bam, he gets arrested. Here's his mugshot. Here's the thing, though. He goes to trial for the first murder that he committed and the jury actually ends up being deadlocked on whether or not he's guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. So he gets acquitted. However, he has to stay in jail while he goes to trial for the second murder. And this time, he's found guilty and he's sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, little Woodrow, at this point, he's like 12 years old. Still living in Ohio with his mom, and he has no idea that his dad is a hitman, no idea his dad is on trial for murder. Until one day, around this time, he's in a car and the radio is on. And a news report comes on saying, Charles B. Harrelson is on trial for murder. And Woodrow's like, oh shit, that's my dad. I guess he's a hitman. Now, you would think that a long prison sentence would be the end of Charles B. Charles's tenure as a hired assassin. Oh, but it's not. It actually gets much worse. Because about five years pass, and it's now 1978, and Charles, he gets out of prison for good behavior.

Now, again, he is at a point where he could just chill and lay low and attempt to live a normal life, but that's not what he does. He gets right back to gambling and he becomes addicted again and I assume that that puts him back in debt and he needs to pay that debt off, which means he needs to become a hitman again. And about a year later, in 1979, he gets contacted by a drug kingpin named Jimmy. And Jimmy, he had recently gotten arrested for drug trafficking and he's about to go to trial and if he gets convicted in this trial, he's looking at a really long prison sentence. Not only that, but the federal judge presiding over his.

his trial is this guy, a judge they call Maximum John. And they call him that because he's known to hand out maximum sentences for drug offenses. So things are really not looking good for Jimmy. And so Jimmy ends up hitting up Charles and he asks him to assassinate Judge Maximum John and he offers to pay him $250,000. And Charles hears this plan and he's just like, all right. Now Charles, he can't buy his own gun. assume that's because he's a convicted felon. So he has his current wife buy a rifle for him. Then the big day comes. The morning of Jimmy's trial. Charles, he goes to Maximum John's home and he flattens a tire on his car. Then later, I guess the judge comes outside to check on the flat. And Charles, who's watching from a distance like a sniper, he aims that rifle at the judge and

blam, he shoots Maximum John and he takes him out. Now, Maximum John, he's a federal judge. So him getting assassinated is a huge deal. And local, state, and federal law enforcement, they launched this massive investigation. They put so much resources into it. It becomes one of the most expensive federal investigations of this time. So around nine months later, bam, Charles gets arrested. But not for unaliving the judge, he gets arrested on firearms charges.

So he goes to jail and he gets out on bail. and when it comes time for him to go to court, he doesn't show up and he flees and he goes on the run. And seven months go by, and it's 1980 now, and he's driving along one day, and apparently Charles is super high. I guess he's into drugs, too? And he has injected himself with so much cocaine that he's starting to hallucinate. And so he's driving along the highway, all high, and he suddenly gets really paranoid, And he becomes convinced that there's a bomb hidden in the muffler of his car. And so skir, he pulls over onto the side of the road.

And he has a gun in the car and he gets it out and he points it at the back of the car and blam, blam, he starts shooting at his own vehicle. I guess he's standing at a distance because he's trying to trigger the bomb and to get the bomb to go off. But since there isn't really a bomb in his muffler, this doesn't work and he just ends up blowing out one of his own tires. Now eventually, with all this commotion going on, police show up. But Charles, he's not gonna go down easy. He sees them and he freaks the hell out and he threatens to unalive himself. Basically, he takes himself hostage.

And while he's standing there freaking out and rambling, he also claims a bunch of crazy things, like that he's the one who assassinated JFK and stuff like that. And this crazy standoff goes on for six hours. Before finally, bam, police are able to arrive. able to arrest him. And I don't have a mugshot, but here is a picture of him in custody. Now eventually, Charles is found guilty and he gets two life sentences and he ends up admitting to being involved in a lot more murders than the ones I laid out here. But who even knows if that's

true because he makes a lot of claims. But anyway, his son, who he didn't raise, did eventually grow up to be a world famous actor. So good for Woody.